Tuesday, November 3, 2009

CONTROVERSY! Realigning college hoops through tradition

A few weeks ago, while trying to find something completely unrelated, I found an interesting release on ESPN's Media site, the upcoming release of the ESPN College Basketball Encyclopedia($49.95 at bookstores everywhere). Contained in it is an exclusive all-time ranking of teams that Jeff Sagarin compiled. Printing up the rankings, the devious realignment man in me thought....How can I realign all these teams into neater leagues of similar strength?

It took a day or two to finalize it, but now I present to you, The Great College Basketball Hierarchy. It consists of three parts:

The Aristocracy: The 100 greatest college basketball programs, containing most of the current elite.

The Middle Class: The next 100, mostly coming from the current middle tier of conferences.

The Proletariat: The lowest 130 along with 16 teams transitioning to Division I(Winston-Salem State is excluded since they have announced they will return to Division II).

The common theme of all these conferences is they have 10 teams each(some conferences in The Proletariat have 11), they're confined to a certain geographic area and consist of teams of roughly the same historical strength. Most conferences had to be broken up in order for the conferences to make sense(the exceptions are the MEAC and the SWAC). All conferences are presented from west to east.

Warning: This is not intended to be a serious attempt at realigning all 32 current Division I conferences, it is just the product of my imagination.

The Aristocracy

Pacific-10:California, UCLA, Oregon, Oregon State, San Francisco, Santa Clara, Southern California, Stanford, Washington, Washington StateThis Aristocracy conference is the closest to it's real life creation, only Arizona and Arizona State were removed(due to geographic considerations). In place of the Arizona schools are two additional teams from the San Francisco Bay Area.

Western Athletic:Arizona, Arizona State, Brigham Young, Colorado, Nevada-Las Vegas, Texas, Texas Tech, Utah, Utah State, WyomingWhy are the Longhorns here with this Mountain West-like league rather than with Oklahoma and Texas A&M? Well for one, Texas A&M's historical underperformance put it the Middle Class and two, it's the closest Aristocracy school to Lubbock, who if one more western school would've made it would've been the outlier in this conference.

South Central:Alabama, Arkansas, Houston, Louisiana State, Memphis, Mississippi State, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Southern Methodist, TulsaGiven the option of Alabama and UAB for the 10th spot in this melding of the SEC West(the good teams) and Conference USA's best, I would've prefered the Blazers so that the Crimson Tide could be connected to Auburn. But that would be a violation of the geography rule I followed.

Great Lakes:Bradley, Butler, DePaul, Illinois, Loyola of Chicago, Marquette, Northwestern, Notre Dame, Southern Illinois, WisconsinSpread into only 3 states, this has a high concentration of private schools(particularly Catholic ones). Fast rising Butler was one of the teams close to the diving line between The Aristocracy and the Middle Class.

Ohio Valley:UAB, Auburn, Cincinnati, Kentucky, Louisville, Murray State, Tennessee, Vanderbilt, Western Kentucky, XavierAt last.....the 1948 conference.....with a modern day extension into Alabama. All ten teams here fit into neat little pairs of 2, which should be perfect for traveliing purposes. UAB has best Sagarin rating for schools with less than 50 years of basketball.

Atlantic Coast:Duke, Florida, Florida State, Georgia Tech, North Carolina, North Carolina State, South Carolina, Virginia, Wake Forest, West VirginiaNot only are the Tobacco Road rivalries retained, but Florida joins in to make this conference the strongest in terms of the most recent decade. South Carolina is also here(having left in 1971), but I think the TR denziens would not be too thrilled to have them back.

Capitol:Duquesne, George Washington, Georgetown, La Salle, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Pittsburgh, St. Joseph's, Temple, VillanovaThe name of conference may mean that this league is centered on Washington, but Philadelphia is it's true epicenter. All five members of the Philadelphia Big 5(save Drexel, but the Dragons have only been involved in the series for a few years) are included.

Big East:Boston College, Connecticut, Holy Cross, Penn State, Princeton, Providence, St. Bonaventure, St. John's, Seton Hall, SyracuseNortheast-oriented, most of the historic Big East is here, with a few oddballs such as Princeton and Holy Cross(the last team in the top 100) thrown in. The lowest rated conference in the Aristocracy.

The Middle Class

California:UC Irvine, UC Santa Barbara, Cal State Fullerton, Fresno State, Hawai'i, Long Beach State, Loyola Marymount, Pepperdine, San Diego, San DiegoA southern California-oriented league comprised of most of the current Big West(with a few West Coast and Western Athletic teams and San Diego State thrown in).

Northern Pacific:Boise State, Gonzaga, Idaho, Idaho State, Nevada, Pacific, Portland, Portland State, St. Mary's, San Jose StateWHAT?!?!?? Gonzaga in the Middle Class? Well if performance was measured only from about 1998, not 1938, the Bulldogs would easily be in the Aristocracy, but they still have a lot to do to erase the all those years as Big Sky and West Coast doormats.

Big West:Air Force, Colorado State, Denver, Montana, Montana State, New Mexico, New Mexico State, UTEP, Texas Christian, Weber StateAgain, a geographical need, plus congestion in the next confernence resulted in a far out move into Texas for a 10th member(TCU). UTEP is the only former national champion(excluding CCNY, now in Division III) not in the Aristocracy. Very strong league for this particular level.

Gulf Star:Baylor, Lamar, Louisiana-Lafayette, Louisiana Tech, McNeese State, New Orleans, North Texas, RIce, Texas A&M, TulaneTeams from 5 current conferences join in a conference named for a former D-I league(1984-87, strangely none of those 6 who were in that configuration are here). Texas A&M is one of a few teams here who could be in the Aristocracy if only more recent seasons were used.

Missouri Valley:Arkansas State, Drake, Eastern Illinois, Green Bay, Illinois State, Missouri State, Northern Illinois, Northern Iowa, Oral Roberts, SE Missouri StateOK, it may be disheartening for Valley fans to see their league downgraded to Middle Class status, but in truth, 4 teams in the current league do qualify for Aristocracy status and because of geographic constraints, the Indiana schools had to move out. The result: 6 new teams, all of whom get an upgade from their current situations(Oral Roberts in particular).

Mid-American:Akron, Ball State, Central Michigan, Detroit, Evansville, Indiana State, Kent State, Valparaiso, Western Michigan, Wright StateFive MAC holdovers get additions from the Horizon and Missouri Valley creating a poor man's version of the Big Ten. The membership-by-state breakdown is more hoosier-oriented(4 from Ohio, 4 from Indiana, 2 Michigan(compared to 6-2-2)).

Southeastern:Clemson, Georgia, Jacksonville, University of Miami, Mississippi, South Alabama, South Florida, Southern Mississippi, Tennessee State, Tennessee TechThis is a motley collection of football-first schools and Sun Belt currents and alumni. Spicing up this league is Tennessee State, the only HBCU that is not in a Proletariat league.

Colonial:Charlotte, Davidson, East Tennessee State, Eastern Kentucky, Marshall, Morehead State, Old Dominion, Virginia Commonwealth, Virginia Tech, William & MaryDavidson and Virginia Tech could make a case for Aristocracy status in a few years. Otherwise, it's the CAA without a Northern and Southern extreme and an extension into Kentucky and West Virginia.

Central Coast:Army, Canisius, Cornell, Lafayette, Navy, Niagara, Richmond, Rutgers, St. Francis(PA), St. Peter'sArmy-Navy is fully retained, only because the Knights could not get the next conference because of geographical congestion. The same thing can also be said of Richmond, but due to burning bridges with their old CAA cohorts a few years back, did not get back in this realignment. Weakest Middle Class conference.

Northern Atlantic:Columbia, Fairfield, Fordham, Hofstra, Iona, Long Island, Manhattan, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, YaleI briefly considered reusing the old Metropolitan Conference moniker for this New York-oriented loop, but the presence of 2 Atlantic 10 teams from New England prevented that outcome.

The Proletariat

Great West:UC Davis, UC Riverside, Cal Poly, Cal State Bakersfield, Eastern Washington, Northern Arizona, Northridge State, Sacramento State, Seattle, Southern Utah, Utah ValleyTHIS is how to properly do a "Great West" Conference. If Seattle(transitioning to Division I) had remained at the top level, they would have been in the Middle Class.

North Central:Chicago State, Illinois-Chicago, Milwaukee, Missouri-Kansas City, North Dakota, North Dakota State, Northern Colorado, South Dakota, South Dakota State, Southern Illinois-Edwardsville, Western IllinoisHistoric conference is restored with 5 former members and 6 new ones.

Horizon:Binghamton, Buffalo, Cleveland State, Colgate, Eastern Michigan, IPFW, IUPUI, Oakland, Robert Morris, Youngstown StateHad to reach into Central New York State to fill out this group(Which is more of a reflection of the fact that the Great Lakes region is disproportionately filled by Aristocracy and Middle Class teams).

Sunshine:Bethune-Cookman, Central Florida, Florida A&M, Florida Atlantic, Florida Gulf Coast, Florida International, Georgia Southern, North Florida, Stetson, Troy5 of these schools didn't exist in 1969. BCC and FAMU are the only HBCU teams(other than Tennessee State) that aren't in an HBCU conference(and that was only because of congestion).

Explorers:American, Campbell, East Carolina, George Mason, James Madison, Liberty, Longwood, Mount St. Mary's, UNC Wilmington, Radford, Virginia MilitaryThe most unique "new" conference name for a bunch of teams who've underachieved(GMU's 2006 Final Four run notwithstanding).

East Coast:Bucknell, Delaware, Drexel, Lehigh, Loyola(MD), Maryland-Baltimore County, Monmouth, New Jersey Tech, Rider, TowsonHey! Didn't all these teams belong to the "OLD" East Coast Conference? No.

New England:Boston University, Brown, Bryant, Dartmouth, Hartford, Harvard, Maine, New Hampshire, Northeastern, VermontIt pains me to include Harvard and Proletariat in the same sentence. Oh, wait. I just did!

If you like this, or think I've lost my tiny little noodle, feel free to comment.